By Richard Cloutier

On Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, returning super middleweight Mikkel Kessler and his potential comeback opponent, Renan St-Juste, went face to face. Both boxers were present for Lucian Bute impressive defense of the IBF title against Brian Magee. Kessler flew to the show, with promoter Kalle Sauerland, to scout St-Juste and Bute. St-Juste was scheduled to face Alejandro Berrio on the show, but was forced to withdraw with an illness a few days ago. There are ongoing discussions to match Bute and Kessler in the fall.

Hugh Jean-Claude, the manager of St-Juste, has confirmed to BoxingScene that videos of Renan's fights have already been requested by Kessler and Sauerland.

Hot Canadian super featherweight Pier-Olivier Cote (15-0-0) had a first round destruction of Michael Lozada (37-8-1) on the Bute-Magee undercard. Cote is said to be returning on the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley undercard on May 7 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This will be Cote's second fight in the United States. Beyond the Vegas bout, he wants to fight for a regional title in his next outing.

Former WBO Inter-continental champion Sebastien Gauthier (20-2-0) was also impressive on the Bute-Magee card. He pulled in a second round knockout of Jovanny Soto-Ramirez. Gauthier is now looking in the direction of a regional title fight. He could have the chance to fight for such a title in Lévis, near Quebec, on May 27.